Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology

124 cyberneticsMany issues regarding freedom of speech and expressionarise in the online world. Should a blogger be accordedthe rights of a traditional journalist? Should an Americancompany such as Google or Yahoo! be held responsible forturning dissidents over to Chinese authorities?The growth of immersive and persistent online gameworlds such as Second Life raises other difficult questions forcyberlaw (see identity in the online world and onlinegames). Can promises (whether business contracts or evenmarriage proposals) made through online personas (“avatars”)be binding? Who owns property (such as a house)created or purchased in the virtual world? What if someonesteals or vandalizes the virtual property? Should a virtualworld be treated as a kind of parallel jurisdiction andperhaps allowed to have its own legal system and courts,perhaps even a form of limited sovereignty? While thesequestions may seem far-fetched, they take on more urgencyas millions of people begin to spend a significant part oftheir waking time in a virtual world and generate economicactivity that can be denominated in real money. The resolutionof these and other cyberlaw issues will both depend onand influence how the Internet itself is organized and governed(see Internet organization and governance).For some organizations currently involved in trying to promotecyber rights and shape policy, see cyberspace advocacygroups.Further ReadingBarlow, John Perry. “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace.”Available online. URL: http://homes.eff.org/~barlow/Declaration-Final.html. Accessed September 9, 2007.Electronic Frontier Foundation. “Internet Law Treatise.” Availableonline. URL: http://ilt.eff.org/index.php/Table_of_Contents.Accessed April 23, 2008.Gahtan, Alan. Cyberlaw Encyclopedia. Available online. URL:http://www.gahtan.com/cyberlaw/. Accessed September 9,2007.Ku, Raymond S., and Jacqueline D. Lipton. Cyberspace Law: Casesand Materials. 2nd ed. New York: Aspen Publishers, 2006.Lessig, Lawrence. Code: Version 2.0. New York: Basic Books, 2006.Zittrain, Jonathan L. Jurisdiction (Internet Law Series). New York:Foundation Press, 2005.cyberneticsCybernetics may not be familiar to many readers today,except as part of words like “cyberspace.” The term wascoined by mathematician Norbert Wiener (see Wiener,Norbert) in his book about control and communicationin animals and machines. The root comes from the Greekkybernetes, meaning steersman or governor.Cybernetics looks at systems as a whole. A key conceptis feedback, which allows a system to adjust itself inresponse to changes in the environment. A familiar exampleis a thermostat, which includes a switch that expands asthe air heats, turning off the heater when the temperaturereaches its indicated setting. Similarly, as the air cools theswitch contracts and restarts the heater.In addition to feedback, cybernetics looks at how informationis communicated between the environment and amachine or organism, or between component parts. Cyberneticsis also interested in structures that may be builtup through feedback and communication—ultimately, inhumans: the structures of self, identity, and consciousness.Cybernetics is fundamental to the operation of robots(see robotics). Around the time of Wiener’s book, GreyWalter built one of the earliest robots, a “cybernetic turtle”that could autonomously explore an environment, respondingto changes in light.In computers, any program that changes its behavior inresponse to new data might be called cybernetic. Cyberneticsis relevant to a variety of fields in computer science thatinvolve machine learning or reasoning (see artificial intelligence,genetic programming, and neural network).During the 1950s and 1960s cybernetics conceptsbecame quite influential and were applied to such diversefields as neurology, cognitive science, psychology, philosophy,anthropology, sociology, and economics. However,the term cybernetics itself gradually fell out of favor,even though the concepts remain at the heart of systemsthinking. For some writers such as Gregory Bateson andanthropologist Margaret Mead, the focus shifted to a “newcybernetics” or “second-order cybernetics” that studies theinteraction of observers with phenomena and attempts toconstruct a model of the mind itself.Further ReadingAmerican Society for Cybernetics. Available online. URL: http://www.asc-cybernetics.org/. Accessed September 10, 2007.Gasperi, Michael. “Grey Walter’s Machina Speculatrix.” Availableonline. URL: http://www.extremenxt.com/walter.htm.Accessed September 10, 2007.Principia Cybernetica Web. Available online. URL: http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/. Accessed September 10, 2007.Wiener, Norbert. Cybernetics: or Control and Communication inthe Animal and the Machine. 2nd ed. Cambridge, Mass.: MITPress, 1961.cyberspace advocacy groupsBy the mid-1990s a number of issues were arising as theInternet and Web became an increasingly important factorin commerce and society (see censorship and theInternet, intellectual property and computing, andprivacy in the digital age). Often in response to proposedor enacted federal legislation, a number of advocateshave organized groups to keep track of developments thatthey believe threaten the free exchange of information andexpression, as well as opposing government surveillanceand corporate practices believed to intrude on privacy.Although there are dozens of groups advocating for therights of Internet users, three groups have been particularlyprominent and effective.Electronic Frontier FoundationThe Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was founded in1990 by Mitch Kapor, John Gilmore, and John Perry Barlow.Its immediate motivation was the federal search andseizure of computers belonging to Steve Jackson Gamesas part of an investigation into illegal distribution of proprietarydocuments. Although the game company was not